I was recently invited to a rather private sit-down dinner with Cherie Blair and her team, who were in India to raise funds for her charity.

While the invitation really excited me, I gulped when I read the fine print. It said: 'Dress Code — Lounge Suit or National Dress'. What made me nervous? It was the fact that I had bought my last suit in 2003 and eleven years later, I had to stuff myself to get into it. I told my wife, "I think Cherie Blair deserves a new suit", but when the time came to go and burn some hard rokda (cash), the Marwari in me passed the chance. I said to myself, "The next occasion will be a year or two later, so just chill."

So, when my contact at ET Magazine sent me a link of Banana Republic's new 'Start-up Guy Look' for the upcoming fall season (google it), it was my time to chuckle and smile. My turn had come!

I think the 'Start-up Guy Look' is so significant that it challenges the immaculate dress style of another British celebrity — Mr James Bond and the entire concept of being successful. This is why:

Licence to Kill

Steve Jobs was (and is, in my idolatry mind) the greatest 'start-up guy' ever born. He started, failed, started, succeeded, failed, started, succeeded and then went to heaven. When he presented on stage, the world stopped spinning. His devices (I am writing this on a MacBook Air) changed the future of Homo sapiens. He was Newton with another kind of Apple up his sleeve.

How did Jobs dress on stage? Like a start-up guy! The black turtleneck, jeans and sneakers that he perpetually wore as a 'uniform' are now legendary. But little do people know that Jobs wanted a similar 'uniform' for Apple employees after he visited Sony in the '80s. He was really impressed by the uniform of Sony employees but unfortunately, when he tried to implement the same at Apple, he was booed at.

Jobs adopted the costume for himself and never changed his dress code. He was the James Bond of the digital world that wore this simple-yetstunning 'casual armour' while he demolished his competitors single handedly and one by one.

Die Another Day

I followed the Facebook IPO like a hound. A few weeks before its debut on Wall Street, Mark Zuckerberg went to New York to meet the sharks of Wall Street.

Now imagine the shock when the highest and mightiest of the Wall Street mafia met Zuckerberg for his Facebook IPO roadshow and discovered him wearing a hoodie! This was the same Zuckerberg who routinely wore sandals to work and even showed up once for a venture capital pitch in his pyjamas!

The hoodie was a slap in the face for the Banker Gang. A very prominent analyst called Michael Pachter (whom I had personally met in a jacket and shirt) told Bloomberg that the "Facebook CEO's decision to show up for a meeting with potential investors dressed down in his trademark casual outerwear suggests that he's too immature to run a massive corporation. He's actually showing investors he doesn't care that much; he's going to be him. I think that's a mark of immaturity. I think that he has to realize he's bringing investors in as a new constituency right now, and I think he's got to show them the respect that they deserve because he's asking them for their money."

A couple of weeks later, when the Facebook stock debuted, it was hit by a technical snafu and then sank. I distinctly remember thinking to myself, "Shucks...I really think Zuckerberg should have followed protocol. He should have not shown his finger to Wall Street — they are the Gods of Money..."

Facebook stock debuted at $38 and then fell as low as $25 in the weeks to come. It was a classic disaster. But, did Zuckerberg change his style and stop being who he was? Not at all! He continued being 'Mr Hoodie Man' and went about his business as calm as an Indian cow standing in the middle of Dadar circle.

The Facebook stock quickly began its Himalayan ascent due to the spectacular quarter-on-quarter performances, and is now at an all-time high of $75; and is being strongly recommended by analysts to buy!

Skyfall

I run a mobile games business and have been venture invested for a while now. Given that I am in the business of 'making fun', I try and wear fun too! So, it's not uncommon to see me (or the 100-odd people who work in my company) wearing stressed (torn) jeans, tee-shirts (some with expletives written on them), crocs, keds, chappals and anything else.

The expectation in my company is, "Come to work with your brains and clothes" (anything will do except being nude).

In the past few years and board meetings, I have worn what I would regularly wear to work without thinking twice about the 'occasion'.